The vinyl resurgence shows no sign of slowing, so here's a great budget turntable for your newly thrifted LPs.

December 27, 2012

On December 26, 2012 we lost Gerry Anderson, prolific creative force behind countless classics of UK television. Though his shows and techniques may seem a little homebrew these days, there was nothing as thrilling or as "realistic" anywhere else. Whether you were a fan of his innovative "Supermarionation" puppet series like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, or his later live action output such as Space:1999 or UFO (one of my personal favorites), his unique vision has lasted through generations of TV audiences, and still influences the world of special effects.

Anderson got his start in the 1950s with a number of black and white series for children. While his career goal was to produce live-action films for the cinema, his earliest work in the entertainment industry was as a children's TV producer for British television. Looking for a more economical way to do cartoons, he hit upon the idea of using puppets. Puppets on TV weren't unusual back then, but it wasn't long before Anderson's puppet shows stood out from the stringed-up crowd. Puppet shows were often shot in a single long take, like watching a live show on a stage. Anderson used the tools of cinema - editing, varying shot sizes - all to make his puppets into TV stars. His team also created an innovative method for animating the character's mouth in precise synch to the pre-recorded soundtrack- a huge innovation. On one series, when he saw how much excitement an on-set explosion added to a scene, Anderson added elaborate special effects to every episode of every series.

His 50s and 60s TV series inhabited the world of science fiction. Not only because hearts and minds were on the high-tech space race of the time, but he theorized that the future's inevitable moving walkways and jetpacks would keep the puppets from having to walk around too much (still a difficult illusion for puppeteers to pull off). After successfully selling his series Fireball XL-5 and Stingray to the US, Anderson created the epic 60 minute episodes of Thunderbirds - his most famous series. It's safe to argue that the massively popular (and massively impractical) craft of Thunderbirds were the real stars of the show. The follow-up series Captain Scarlet introduced more realistically proportioned puppets which were both amazing - and amazingly creepy.

Finally realizing his dream of live action adventure (after helming a handful of feature films), the 70s brought a pair of innovative live action shows - the infamous Space:1999, and the virtually unknown UFO (that I adore for all the wrong reasons). 1999 featured amazing special effects for TV, astonishingly comprehensive design for the sets, fashion designs for the crew... No wonder it was the most expensive series on television at the time (though a ratings disappointment). UFO was the precursor to 1999, a show that seems to be about who can make the cruelest command decision that will result in the most collateral damage - but that's a story for another time.

In the 80s, Anderson returned to kid's TV with Terrahawks (he was not involved in the Japanese cartoon Thunderbirds:2086). The 90s saw a new live-action series called Space Precinct, as well as a revival of sorts of his puppet series. One peculiar repackaging called "Turbocharged Thunderbirds" in the US had human hosts that followed the goings-on of the characters on... um... "Thunderworld". Another 90s attempt to modernize Thunderbirds saw the 60 minute episodes edited down to 22 minutes (first to go... shots of the puppets smoking cigarettes!), with new dialogue tracks and sound effects (but the original 60s music soundtrack for some reason) dubbed in.

Anderson himself was constantly busy with new ideas & innovation even after his 60s heyday. Dick Spanner was a stop-motion animated series, and he was an early entrant into full computer animation with an all CG reboot of Captain Scarlet in the 2000s. While he remained at arms length from the 2004 Thunderbirds feature film that played like a knockoff of Spy Kids, he was still out there promoting his old series and developing new ideas.

It's not hard to find examples the effect Anderson's shows had on the special effects industry worldwide. Many of his top people were poached for 2001: A Space Odyssey in the 60s. In the 70s one of his top FX artists, Derek Meddings, went on to be a remarkably in-demand miniatures and effects expert creating astonishing visuals for the original Superman feature film and several installments of the James Bond series. In the 90s til today, Ron Thornton (a gent I've had the good fortune to speak with a number of times) is a master of computer graphics special effects. He and a small team of dedicated effects artists used their Amiga computers in the early 90s to create the amazing special effects of space opera Babylon 5 - the first weekly TV series to have fully CG special effects that looked as good as anything in feature films. The methods he used to "dirty down" clean computer generated models comes right from the "lived-in tech" techniques from Anderson's many series.

It's no exaggeration to say that we've lost one of the fathers of modern film and television special effects. I first saw his series at 6 in the morning on local television in the 70s. Trust me, it's got to be something special to get me out of bed that early. Even in those post Star Wars years, the level of attention to detail Anderson's crews lavished onto what were ostensibly kid's shows is still breathtaking. Oh yes, those shows are quirky, but Anderson's work amazed us then, and in so many ways continues to amaze us now. You knew from the very first time that you were watching something special. We salute you, Gerry Anderson.

December 21, 2012

Longtime readers will know that I'm a huge fan of Ernie Kovacs, TV genius & pioneer. Everyone pretty much agrees on how amazing Ernie was, but what a lot of people don't realize is just how amazing his wife Edie Adams was too. She's that gorgeous lady at the Hungarian's elbow (usually singing) in much of his television output. The lady who was equally at home as an opera singing grand dame, as she was a dame getting hit in the face with a pie. The amazing lady who had the foresight to save all of those classic TV shows when their destiny was the dumpster.

It might have been easy for someone else to get lost in the shadow of Ernie personality and legend, but multi-talented Edie had a significant career of her own; Broadway, movies, TV, and of course her long stint as the Muriel "why-don’t-ya-pick-one-up-and-smoke-it-sometime?" cigar girl.

She pressed a few albums in her time, but never released a Christmas album until now. This new CD is a collection of Christmas music from Kovacs' live morning TV show in the 50s - "Kovacs Unlimited". These are simple & unadorned arrangements of Christmas classics (along with some less shopworn tunes) as she performed them on live TV. These recordings come from acetate records of these live performances, so by all accounts it's a miracle that we can hear these songs today.
For audio purists out there, yes... you will hear some surface noise from these 60 year old acetates, but the restoration of Edie's voice is tremendous. Any extraneous noise doesn't matter to me in the least. The performances have that vitality that only live TV can create (you can even hear Ernie and crew chatter in the background on a couple cuts).

I thoroughly enjoyed this CD, one of the rare times my love of old TV can share space in my heart with love for these old classics. If you can't find the Edie Adams Christmas Album at your local record store (the CD's liner notes are worth getting the physical disc), you can download selected tracks or the whole album right away from Amazon.

December 16, 2012

These stunning Autochrome photographs were shot in Paris on the eve of WWI. It always astounds me how much more realistic images from this period seem when captured in color - the ethereal other-worldly quality of B&W is cast aside in favor of heightened realism that seems like a modern recreation.

December 15, 2012

Sonex Aircraft, LLC is the brainchild of businessman and kit designer John
Monnett and Mechanical Engineer Pete Buck. Monnett's industry
credentials are legendary -- he was inducted into the Experimental
Aircraft Association's Homebuilders Hall of Fame in 2001. Buck, on the
other hand, draws up the plans for Sonex designs "in his spare time."
Scared yet? Don't be. Buck is a lead Engineer at Lockheed Martin's famed
Skunkworks. He worked on the F-117 Stealth Fighter and X-33, among
others.

Since 1998, they have introduced a range or piston driven light aircraft that have proven popular with kit enthusiasts -- the two-place Sonex, Y-tail Waiex and the Onex single-seater.

Now they've unveiled the jet-powered SubSonex.

The "pre-prototype" SubSonex JSX-1 has been flying since August, 2011. It looks like its piston relatives, except that instead of a propeller, a surprisingly compact PBS TJ-100 turbojet engine is mounted on the top rear of the fuselage, directly in front of the distinctive Waiex Y tail.

The TJ-100 puts out only 247 pounds of thrust, but that's enough to propel this tiny 400 lb aircraft through the air with decent performance. Upon takeoff, the JSX-1 is capable of climbing 2,000 ft/min at 140 mph. Its cruise speed is 170 mph, while its Vne is 197 mph - the same as its piston-powered siblings.

December 06, 2012

We just built the final few dozen of our exclusive Rogue Red Clear Classic USB Joysticks. This is it, there won't be any more - in fact the mold isn't capable of making any more, even if we wanted to. If you're the kind of person who waits until the last minute... this is it.

Need a little extra push? Until Saturday at midnight, our Retro Red USB Joysticks are only $29.99 with free shipping within the US. We won't be repeating this offer again as we expect to sell out the last of our stock in the next few days.

To all those of you who helped make this fusion of current tech and retro good looks a success, thank you. You made our Clear Classic controller a consistent Top Ten product on Amazon (we rocketed all the way up to #2!) More importantly, every joystick helps keep Retro Thing going, and we're very grateful.

We're also very grateful to not have to spend long nights assembling sticks.That's right, they were all assembled in the U.S. of A. in our Chicago HQ. No underpaid overseas assembly service... in fact, everyone who touched the Clear Classic joysticks had a college degree. Now we can see what exactly a college degree is worth, I suppose.

But I digress. This is absolutely your last chance to get a Clear Classic USB joystick. When you plug it into any USB port, the whole stick lights up red. You can use it on any computer with any game that accepts input from a standard USB d-pad. Some games (including online Flash games) are keyboard-only, so please ensure that your favorite game is joystick compatible.

We expect to sell out very soon, and once they're gone, they're gone.

Thanks again to all of you for making our first Retro Thing hardware product a success, and thanks for keeping Retro Thing going. We hope to keep at it for many more years to come.

December 03, 2012

Though I don't have an iPhone, I do like a lot of the camera add-ons. Maybe this is where I turn into an old man, but I can't get over what a good job it does at taking pictures (it's also a nice map, portable game machine... now if only they could get the whole "phone" aspect of it licked...). Apps like Instagram have made it easy to get a retro look reminiscent of Holga toy cameras without any fuss (still not sure how I feel about that), so it feels to me like more people are interested in retro photography than ever.

One of the first accessories you pick up for a traditional film camera is a shutter release, the long snakey cable that pushes the button on the camera to avoid vibration (or put yourself in the picture). Here's a decidedly retro take on it from Photojojo.com. The retractable cable connect to what looks like an old film canister. Unspool the springwound cable and plug it into the headphone jack of your iPhone. Then depress the button on the side of the film canister, and smile.

This is a new product - so new that this is the first day you can get one, and we've got the scoop! You'll also be helping Retro Thing if you use this link to order yours.